There is a remote control device for remotely operating a wet-area device. For example, the remote control device includes multiple operation buttons (switches) and transmits control signals to the wet-area device according to the pressed operation buttons. Japanese Patent No. 5652490 discusses providing, in the interior of a remote control device, a generator that generates electrical power according to the pressing of the operation buttons, and an electrical storage part that stores the generated electrical power. Japanese Publication No. 2017-20284 discusses providing, in a remote control device including a generator and an electrical storage part, a displayer that displays the setting state of the wet-area device.
The inventor has devised the providing of electronic paper for displaying the setting state of a wet-area device in a remote control device including a generator and an electrical storage part. The electronic paper can maintain the display content without consuming electrical power after the information is displayed. Therefore, the power consumption of the remote control device can be reduced by using the electronic paper. It is favorable for the electronic paper to operate (display) by utilizing the electrical power stored in the electrical storage part so that an electrical power supply and the replacement of a battery are unnecessary.
To stably operate the electronic paper by utilizing the electrical power stored in the electrical storage part, it is desirable for the power consumption of the electronic paper to be small. For example, an operation called refresh is necessary for the electronic paper. The refresh is performed to increase the brightness difference of the display of the electronic paper and/or to eliminate afterimages. In a typical refresh, the colors of all of the display regions of the electronic paper are reversed; and the display is changed greatly. Therefore, the electrical power that is necessary for the refresh increases as the display region of the electronic paper increases. Accordingly, it is effective to set the display region of the electronic paper to be small to reduce the power consumption of the electronic paper.
On the other hand, generally, each operation button of the remote control device is marked with information showing the function of the operation button. There are cases where a function is included in the remote control device to notify the user when the function of the pressed operation button is not realized. For example, for the remote control device including the electronic paper, it may be considered to add a region displaying an icon or the like for the notification in the display region of the electronic paper. However, in such a case, the display region of the electronic paper increases; and the display electrical power of the electronic paper increases.